home made water chiller . crocodile no need for you to respond . thanks

so I see the water chillers are about 250 bucks and up . I am trying to chill 20 gallons of water sealed for clones . I was thinking of taking a mini fridge poking some holes in it. so water will be pumped in and out by a 500 gph pump . so the inside of the fridge will have a heater core . the one that is in your car for heat . like a mini radiator . so the holes I poke will be sealed and the fridge will get as cold as normal . I like to keep my water temps about 60f my preference not looking for opinions on best water temps . my indoor temps are 85f co2 injected heavy . a friend is giving me the fridge for free . and I can get the heater core for 20 bucks . any body ever try this method to cool your water ? please share you info . thanks . (PLEASE DONT BASH ME TO BAD ) lol

I'll give you a method that I'm going to do in summer. I currently do it for beer, but just going to adapt it.

What you need is a freezer or fridge and a stc1000 (look it up on google). Just wire the stc1000 up (or you can just buy a unit made up from any brew shop) the fridge goes to the cold and the heat to a beer heat mat. Then have a res tank in the fridge and just drill through the fridge to plumb in the res.

bryan oconner said:

so I see the water chillers are about 250 bucks and up . I am trying to chill 20 gallons of water sealed for clones . I was thinking of taking a mini fridge poking some holes in it. so water will be pumped in and out by a 500 gph pump . so the inside of the fridge will have a heater core . the one that is in your car for heat . like a mini radiator . so the holes I poke will be sealed and the fridge will get as cold as normal . I like to keep my water temps about 60f my preference not looking for opinions on best water temps . my indoor temps are 85f co2 injected heavy . a friend is giving me the fridge for free . and I can get the heater core for 20 bucks . any body ever try this method to cool your water ? please share you info . thanks . (PLEASE DONT BASH ME TO BAD ) lol

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Yes I have..it worked ok, I was chilling approx 35 gal. The problem was the fridge ran constantly and got so hot it discoloured the paint. I stopped using it before it burned my house down.

kiwipaulie thanks .

redi jedi said:

Yes I have..it worked ok, I was chilling approx 35 gal. The problem was the fridge ran constantly and got so hot it discoloured the paint. I stopped using it before it burned my house down.

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it did the water have a lid on it to lock in the cold ? or was the water exposed to air ? if you were covered I am going to pass because I see what you are saying do not want a hazard ! I can just run a small 5000 btu ac unit and make a different room just for clones .

bryan oconner said:

kiwipaulie thanks .

it did the water have a lid on it to lock in the cold ? or was the water exposed to air ? if you were covered I am going to pass because I see what you are saying do not want a hazard ! I can just run a small 5000 btu ac unit and make a different room just for clones .

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I was chilling an insulated RDWC. I was asking it to do more than it was capable of. A small freezer might work better, but I dont recommend using a mini fridge.

I am a bone head . I am only trying to cool 10 gallons of water . not 20 . I have a 20 gallon tote made into a cloner . thinking the fridge will cool 10 gallons easy.

For that small of a res. Put a 5gal rez in the fridge or freezer. Set a pump on a timer. Have it pump when the res has cooled down, you'll have to monitor and adjust to get it right. It'll give the res a chance to cool down, you'll have to play with timing to get it where you want. You could use a temp switch to control the pump, when res gets too hot, it kicks on and circulates until temps drop below the set point then kicks off.

I'm doubtful a fridge can pull a res down to 60 in a 85 room, maybe a freezer, but it's going to be working outside is design range. A fridge or freezer isn't a continuous cooling device. They are designed to reach a set temp them just maintain that temp with short, intermittent cycles. I've only seen one fridge cooler setup that worked, small res, small volume of water in the fridge, he circulated every 12 hrs I think. It allowed the fridge water time to cool without overworking the fridge. Also need to look at power consumption, a fridge is a huge electrical user, especially if it's running at close to full capacity. A properly sized chiller will be a fraction of the operating cost on a smaller set up.

bryan oconner said:

I am a bone head . I am only trying to cool 10 gallons of water . not 20 . I have a 20 gallon tote made into a cloner . thinking the fridge will cool 10 gallons easy.

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For a cloner? 60F is too cold, 68-72f. Your slowing your root growth significantly under 65F.

yes . I will just buy a 5000 btu ac unit and make a small room. do it right the first time and be done . the 5000k unit I can get it down very cool .63 to 65f . everybody has there own opinions on water temps weedfreak I just have better luck 100 % success rate the colder I make it . I used to do temps in the 70 to 75 for me it did not work so well ended up throwing a lot of clones. away.

I grow in soil just stumbled in here.. Curious to know if it's common that your water gets too warm in different hydro setups?? I feel like a basement is the perfect solution to this..

Has long has you have a good sized pump,then i see no need for chiller,Honest dude with root's its not needed unless the water is really hot,get it blasting the root's or before roots the stem's in a auto cloner .There is a place in every house that is shaded,put them in that area,if its a home made cloner best to have the water so it drain's to a main tank,then pumped back to the misters then drained back to the tank,by doing this the misting if you are using a decent pump will be fine

good luck tyke